Facebook Launches Verified Accounts and Pseudonyms — Facebook, a service built on real names and real identities, will tomorrow start allowing prominent public figures to verify their accounts and then opt to display a preferred nickname instead of their birth name.

Facebook to Release Timeline for Brands This Month — Launch Announcement Expected at Company's Feb. 29 Marketer Conference — Facebook will be bringing its new Timeline profile pages to brands this month in the U.S., according to executives briefed on the company's plans.

LightSquared blew it, and here's why — LightSquared may have had a great case for building its wireless network, but the fledgling company lacked the political tact to see it through. — LightSquared CEO Sanjiv Ahuja delivers a speech at CTIA 2011. — LightSquared today fired …

DuckDuckGo Has Its First Million-Search Day — The growth chart continues to trend in the right direction for DuckDuckGo. — It was just about three weeks ago that we wrote about the search engine setting its own record with 731,000 searches in a single day. To go from that to more than a million in a few weeks is impressive.

Apple iPad plant conditions better than the norm: agency — (Reuters) - Working conditions at Chinese manufacturing plants where Apple Inc's iPads and iPhones are made are far better than those at garment factories or other facilities elsewhere in the country, according to the head of a non-profit agency investigating the plants.

Did Samsung just reveal a Galaxy Note 10.1 for MWC? — Samsung's official website may have revealed the name of a heretofore unannounced product: a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. The name appears on the company's invitation to a Samsung Developer Day at MWC this year, alongside the Galaxy Note …

Obama campaign opening tech field office in San Francisco — The president's re-election effort is looking for a boost in the middle of one of the most tech-savvy cities in the world. It's not staffed up yet, but the campaign is looking for volunteers. — President Obama's re-election campaign …

HP CEO: Google-Motorola deal could close-source Android — HP CEO Meg Whitman said a closed-source Android and iOS could create a big opportunity for webOS in the long run — WebOS could be an important player in the long run as an open-source mobile operating system because Android …

Israelis Tap In to Silicon Valley — PALO ALTO—A group of visiting Israeli technology entrepreneurs recently got some blunt advice on how to do business in Silicon Valley. Be positive, smile a lot and don't bad-mouth a competitor, venture capitalist Itamar Novick told them.

Opera Acquires Two Mobile Ad Networks — Browser maker Opera said late Wednesday that it has acquired London-based 4th Screen Advertising and San Francisco-based Mobile Theory, two mobile advertising networks. Opera said the moves should help the company “better monetize the traffic” from its Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers.